We've closed this thread to new posts. Please discuss this topic in a new thread given the fact she just won the race outright in 2023. Does that mean that the 2022 cheating allegations definitely have no merit?
The "gripe" in noting a single photo posted by the Race shows Paulson and her Pacer each breaking two different rules, both said to carry consequences, which were obvious, but were ignored (by Race Officials).
You seem to argue rules should not be rules. And assert that anyone noting or upholding them takes perverse pleasure in it and has an empty life.
This image below (or linked below) is on the Badwater site and shows Paulson and her pacer; "Ashley Paulson and pacer descend Towne Pass into the Panamint Valley during the 2022 Badwater 135."
No bib for either is visible in the photo.
Badwater rules state both the Racer and Pacer must wear bibs on their front at all times.
Badwater seems to not be enforcing a requirement which helps prevent cheating.
What am I missing?
3. The race number bib must be worn by the racer on the front of the body, unmodified, unfolded, and visible at all times during the race. It may not be worn on the head or hat. The Pacer Bib numbers must also be worn similarly by any pacer / crew member who is running along with his or her racer.
The posted photo also shows both Racer and Pacer running down the middle of the road.
This is also contrary to posted rules for the Event and is said to require a Time Penalty or DQ
7. Running must always be single file, on the far left side of the road or off the left side of the road, facing traffic (pacers, too).
...Time Penalties or Disqualification will be enforced with a Zero Tolerance Policy towards dangerous crossing of, or behavior on, the roadway
Actually they appear to be running single file, on the far left side of the road, facing traffic. The yellow line is the middle of the road. The white line they’re running on top of marks the shoulder/side of the road.
It's not like Badwater can claim no knowledge, since they posted and annotated the photo.
Other, lesser offenses will result in the following cumulative time penalties: • A WARNING may be issued, depending on the nature of the infraction, at the discretion of the race official (A “slash” will be marked on the racer’s bib number.) • First Penalty: One Hour (“X” will be marked on the racer’s bib number.) • Second Penalty: Disqualification
If it wasn't identified during the race, they won't give out a warning.... it's pointless to give a warning after the race is done by looking at a race photo.
The posted photo also shows both Racer and Pacer running down the middle of the road.
This is also contrary to posted rules for the Event and is said to require a Time Penalty or DQ
7. Running must always be single file, on the far left side of the road or off the left side of the road, facing traffic (pacers, too).
...Time Penalties or Disqualification will be enforced with a Zero Tolerance Policy towards dangerous crossing of, or behavior on, the roadway
Actually they appear to be running single file, on the far left side of the road, facing traffic. The yellow line is the middle of the road. The white line they’re running on top of marks the shoulder/side of the road.
Good point and sharp eye. I (and others) were fooled by perspective. The photo does not seem to demonstrate running on the wrong part of the road.
But original point remains - they're running without bibs placed as required.
I agree this does not invalidate the result. In fact, I have repeatedly posted in Paulson's defence.
But it does show indifferent adherence and enforcement of race rules - and does not inspire confidence.
This would seem a "lesser infraction" which, also according to published Badwater Race Rules, requires issuance of a recorded warning, followed by Time Penalty, followed by DQ.
It's not like Badwater can claim no knowledge, since they posted and annotated the photo.
Other, lesser offenses will result in the following cumulative time penalties: • A WARNING may be issued, depending on the nature of the infraction, at the discretion of the race official (A “slash” will be marked on the racer’s bib number.) • First Penalty: One Hour (“X” will be marked on the racer’s bib number.) • Second Penalty: Disqualification
Ernest, youre not being straightforward. You say “requires” a warning, and then quote rules that DONT REQUIRE A WARNING because it’s at the official’s discretion. What’s up with that?
The posted photo also shows both Racer and Pacer running down the middle of the road.
This is also contrary to posted rules for the Event and is said to require a Time Penalty or DQ
7. Running must always be single file, on the far left side of the road or off the left side of the road, facing traffic (pacers, too).
...
The posted photo shows them running on the left hand fog line, i.e., “on the far left side of the road.” If they were in the middle of the road, they’d have been on the yellow line, 11 feet to the right. I sure hope you’re just trolling.
So any runners from 2022 Badwater speak up yet? C’mon. This story is great! I say she cheated, no way a Instagram mom can pull that kind of finish. She’s not that talented. Ask Jurek.
if it is her first race past 100, then how do you know what she is capable of. you don't have much data to extrapolate from. only marathon times and triathlon times and a few ultras of a shorter distance.
if the course is as you describe then the heartrate data is the most suspect aspect of it for me. 118-131 are the figures being thrown around in this thread for the final stretch (I can't access the data). It seems far too low for the sort of exertion you imply. That's not even in the aerobic zone (131-149).
what is the path or trail like going up the hilly parts? Or is it a road her van can drive along? if you can't get a vehicle up it, seems unlikely she cheated, assuming the gps hasn't been doctored.
The van can go up the entire way and there's nobody out there. It's road the whole way. The steepness of the hills vary but some of it is just ridiculous.
The way her data extrapolates, she's better at shorter distances than longer distances (2:40 is considerably better than 17:26). It's a gauntlet of hell going up Towne Pass, through Panamint Valley and then up Father Crowley under that blazing sun and she's just not gonna come out of that fresh and pull away from a 14-hour runner who's having a good day, or the defending champion who won Big's Backyard who's running the same splits as last year and not slowing down, by more than a minute per mile between 83 and 108.
I know that people are scrutinizing the data and looking for abnormalities and wondering if maybe she just had a great day and ultimately it's likely that nothing will ever come out of it. But people who know Badwater and know what it means to run the 100s at the paces she did know that there's just no way. Has nothing to do with woman vs man. She's a great athlete, but I doubt she was really capable of much better than 30 and there's a huge difference between 24 and 30 there.
^^^thank you. Hopefully people read this more than once. Anyone who has run this course knows what she did is not possible. Unless it was from an elite like Kilian.
I have a problem with the stride length… 0.89m avg in the 1st Garmin link and 1.23m avg in the 2nd link, which has half of the elevation gain (~4800 ascent vs. ~11200 ascent) but in 16% of the distance (19 miles vs. 113 miles). And the 1st link had ~7800 descent as opposed to only 200 descent in the 2nd link… you’d have a shorter stride length running uphill and longer on downhill. Her difference of .34m across the 2 segments in an opposite direction that one would expect is suspect.
What is incorrect? If anything, your follow-ups have confirmed that you would be that disgraceful old official disqualifying a high school girl because her shorts don’t match her teammates’ because, you know rules are rules after all.
The posted photo also shows both Racer and Pacer running down the middle of the road.
This is also contrary to posted rules for the Event and is said to require a Time Penalty or DQ
7. Running must always be single file, on the far left side of the road or off the left side of the road, facing traffic (pacers, too).
...
The posted photo shows them running on the left hand fog line, i.e., “on the far left side of the road.” If they were in the middle of the road, they’d have been on the yellow line, 11 feet to the right. I sure hope you’re just trolling.
I have a problem with the stride length… 0.89m avg in the 1st Garmin link and 1.23m avg in the 2nd link, which has half of the elevation gain (~4800 ascent vs. ~11200 ascent) but in 16% of the distance (19 miles vs. 113 miles). And the 1st link had ~7800 descent as opposed to only 200 descent in the 2nd link… you’d have a shorter stride length running uphill and longer on downhill. Her difference of .34m across the 2 segments in an opposite direction that one would expect is suspect.
If you look at the per lap stride length for the second record, it’s in line with climbing a steep hill. But the final lap messed it all up.
The second part of her GPS is pretty janky, if anyone has bothered to look. I compared it to GPS data from three other runners from BW 2022, one wearing a Garmin Fenix 6, another a different model Garmin, and another a Coros. All their routes are normal-looking, following the left side of the road. Ashley's, for different parts of that last climb, veers way off onto the right side of the road for significant portions and is just super jagged. I don't see how that's a GPS error after looking at two Garmins and a Coros on the same map software...
The stride length data also show that Garmin isn’t doing the average right. It takes simple average over all the laps, even though the final lap is only 2 steps, while the rest are about 2000 steps. This allowed the final lap of 0.18 mile to mess up the entire thing.
I was able to download her two Garmin routes into Router as both .gpx and .fit files. I'm gonna say with certainty that her Garmin routes have been heavily edited, if not completely fabricated as courses and then posted as routes (recall that it took her two days after the race to post these to IG).
Here's why: I also downloaded two other finishers' 2022 Badwater routes to Router:
-The number of data points on those other finishers' files: just over 21,000 for one, and around 22,000 for the other. These runners recorded total runs of 135.0 and 136.85 mi.
-The number of data points in Ashley's two files combined: just over 5,500.
I also downloaded her twin's file into Router (the portion of the run that the twin paced and posted to Strava): 6,089 data points for a run that was only 42 miles.
Now, why would Ashley's run, more than 3x longer than the twin's, only have 5,500 data points? Why do those other two finishers (one wearing a Garmin Enduro, the other a Garmin Fenix 6X) both have around 21,000-22,000 data points? Keep in mind these two other runners' finish times show a range: one was 27 hours and one was 38 hours. But they both have almost the same number of data points.
With Ashley's sparse data points, what I'm seeing is obviously jumps, which is in line with the jankiness I mentioned up thread: instead of data recording for pretty much every foot of gain or loss in elevation, as in the other two runners' data, there are only data points every few feet or so.
If someone has another explanation for this, I'm all ears. But with her pacer twin's data suggestive of ~20,000 data points if she had run the whole thing, not just 42 miles, this just isn't making sense.
I was able to download her two Garmin routes into Router as both .gpx and .fit files. I'm gonna say with certainty that her Garmin routes have been heavily edited, if not completely fabricated as courses and then posted as routes (recall that it took her two days after the race to post these to IG).
Here's why: I also downloaded two other finishers' 2022 Badwater routes to Router:
-The number of data points on those other finishers' files: just over 21,000 for one, and around 22,000 for the other. These runners recorded total runs of 135.0 and 136.85 mi.
-The number of data points in Ashley's two files combined: just over 5,500.
I also downloaded her twin's file into Router (the portion of the run that the twin paced and posted to Strava): 6,089 data points for a run that was only 42 miles.
Now, why would Ashley's run, more than 3x longer than the twin's, only have 5,500 data points? Why do those other two finishers (one wearing a Garmin Enduro, the other a Garmin Fenix 6X) both have around 21,000-22,000 data points? Keep in mind these two other runners' finish times show a range: one was 27 hours and one was 38 hours. But they both have almost the same number of data points.
With Ashley's sparse data points, what I'm seeing is obviously jumps, which is in line with the jankiness I mentioned up thread: instead of data recording for pretty much every foot of gain or loss in elevation, as in the other two runners' data, there are only data points every few feet or so.
If someone has another explanation for this, I'm all ears. But with her pacer twin's data suggestive of ~20,000 data points if she had run the whole thing, not just 42 miles, this just isn't making sense.
You can change the settings in a GPS watch to record a data point every second, or to record less data points, to save battery life.
From Garmin support:
“Smart Recording
Smart Recording captures key data points as changes occur in direction, speed, heart rate or elevation. This method is recommended as it saves space on your device and has no negative impact on GPS accuracy. This setting will also be the most beneficial to your battery life.
Every Second Recording
Every Second Recording will capture your activity with slightly higher track fidelity but uses significantly more memory. This setting will impact your battery life the most due to tracking more data points more often.”
I was able to download her two Garmin routes into Router as both .gpx and .fit files. I'm gonna say with certainty that her Garmin routes have been heavily edited, if not completely fabricated as courses and then posted as routes (recall that it took her two days after the race to post these to IG).
Here's why: I also downloaded two other finishers' 2022 Badwater routes to Router:
-The number of data points on those other finishers' files: just over 21,000 for one, and around 22,000 for the other. These runners recorded total runs of 135.0 and 136.85 mi.
-The number of data points in Ashley's two files combined: just over 5,500.
I also downloaded her twin's file into Router (the portion of the run that the twin paced and posted to Strava): 6,089 data points for a run that was only 42 miles.
Now, why would Ashley's run, more than 3x longer than the twin's, only have 5,500 data points? Why do those other two finishers (one wearing a Garmin Enduro, the other a Garmin Fenix 6X) both have around 21,000-22,000 data points? Keep in mind these two other runners' finish times show a range: one was 27 hours and one was 38 hours. But they both have almost the same number of data points.
With Ashley's sparse data points, what I'm seeing is obviously jumps, which is in line with the jankiness I mentioned up thread: instead of data recording for pretty much every foot of gain or loss in elevation, as in the other two runners' data, there are only data points every few feet or so.
If someone has another explanation for this, I'm all ears. But with her pacer twin's data suggestive of ~20,000 data points if she had run the whole thing, not just 42 miles, this just isn't making sense.
Maybe different gps accuracy settings? GPS in battery saver mode would only update every 2 to 3 seconds instead of once a second.
